


Exposure Therapy

by RevolutionariesDontWearPlaid (GhostGrantaire)



Category: Les Misérables - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Gender Changes, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/F, Mermaid!Combeferre, mermaid au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-21
Updated: 2014-12-21
Packaged: 2018-03-02 16:27:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,337
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2818703
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GhostGrantaire/pseuds/RevolutionariesDontWearPlaid
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Why had the two algae never had sex?” She asked suddenly.  When Courfeyrac didn’t respond, she continued with “they had a planktonic relationship.”</p>
<p>	Ocean puns.  Courfeyrac was sitting in front of an astonishingly beautiful mermaid, who was also a fucking dork.  This was worse than she could ever expected.</p>
<p>(Or: The One Where Combeferre is a Mermaid and Courfeyrac is Terrified of the Sea)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Exposure Therapy

**Author's Note:**

  * For [rebelliux](https://archiveofourown.org/users/rebelliux/gifts).



> For Roy, who asked for a Fantasy AU! I went with mermaids because who doesn't love mermaids? And yes, it's a beach fic in the middle of winter, just go with it.

Courfeyrac slipped out the door, wincing slightly as the cold sea breeze hit her face.  She shivered, tucking her right hand deeper into her jean pocket as she brought her beer to her lips and took a tentative sip.  There was a small smile still playing on her lips just from being with her friends. They were all still inside, laughing away and conversing loudly about whatever topics came into their mind. Courfeyrac glanced back at the warm light flooding out through the glass windows before walking slowly to the white railing, leaning her elbows on it and taking another deep sip of her drink.

If she was anyone else, Courfeyrac was sure she would be enjoying this much more.  Joly and Bossuet’s beach house was great—it was small enough to be affordable for their modest-paying jobs, but when it was filled with all of their friends, it was one of the most lovable places in the world, and the two men loved sharing it with them. And that wasn’t even mentioning the incredible view.  However, as Courfeyrac looked out over the ocean at the waves, which looked grey and white against the darkening of the sky, she felt that usual sense of unease and discomfort that she always got when she was near the sea.

She sighed, frustrated with herself and blew a strand of curly hair out of her face in annoyance.  There was nothing wrong with the sea.  The sea could be quite nice… or the sea could be scary and mysterious as fuck, and, truth be told, that terrified Courfeyrac to death.  It always had.  As her mind drifted to different horror stories of the ocean, she closed her eyes tightly and whispered quiet expletives under her breath until she could think clearly again and then downed almost half the beer in her hand.

She’d had this… this _thalassophobia,_ as Joly liked to refer to it, for quite some time, and she hated it. According to her mother, she’d liked the beach when she was a toddler, but just one badly timed incident when she had stumbled into her older cousins’ movie night during some shitty sea monster movie had completely ruined her.  She’d never been able to get over, though she had to admit she hadn’t tried very hard.

But now, it was a nice night, the air warm despite the mixed in breezes, and the sun had only just set, leaving a few wayward colors still floating around the sky.  Joly had always stressed facing phobias for what they were—irrational—and Courfeyrac could do this. She could.

She quickly gulped down the rest of her beer before dropping the bottle into the trashcan by the door.  Courfeyrac took one last deep breath before jogging down the wooden steps in her jeans and flip flops and walking the short distance to the beach. Sand hit her feet as she walked, filling up the small spaces between her toes.  When she was only a few feet away from the water’s edge, she paused and stared at it.

“Oh come on Courfeyrac, at this point you’re just procrastinating,” she mumbled to herself after a moment.  She straightened her back, stuck her hands into her back pockets, and took the final few steps, just close enough so her feet were washed over in chilly water seconds later.

“Fuck,” she whispered, closing her eyes for a second.  She reached down at rolled up her pants a couple of inches more before taking a couple more steps.  She was shivering, whether from the cold of the water or anxiety, she wasn’t sure.  She closed her eyes again, resisting the urge to run away as fast as her legs would carry her.

Suddenly, something cold and bit scratchy brushed against her ankle. She let out a loud gasp, her eyes flying open, and she scrambled to get out of the water’s reach. She looked down, her eyes landing on a small branch of some green sea plant that must have hit her leg.

“It’s just a plant, Courfeyrac, for God’s sake, it is just a plant.” She spoke in normal decimals, needing something to bring her back to reality, even if it was just her own voice. Her breath had sped up considerably, and she closed her eyes, working to bring it back down to a healthier speed.

After a minute, she felt slightly better and less like she was going to throw up at any second, but the idea of going back into the water didn’t seem like an option.

“Well,” Courfeyrac muttered, going to sit on a rock several feet from the water’s edge.  “You get points for trying, I guess.”

She pulled her knees close and laid her forehead against them. She’d had enough of the ocean’s view for one day.

“Excuse me, are you alright?” A rich, concerned voice cut through the relative silence.

Courfeyrac sighed, wiping a hand over her face tiredly before running it through her hair as best she could with all of its tangles.  She wasn’t surprised somebody had found her- there were bound to be other people wandering around the beach, and she probably looked like she had had a pretty rough day.  Which she hadn’t.  Courfeyrac had really only had a rough twenty minutes.

“Yes, I’m just fine, sorry,” she started, looking up to the origin of the voice, “it’s just—“

She stopped short.  The voice in question had come from a person sitting on a larger rock, leaned forward in concern.  Except. It wasn’t really a person at all.

They sat on the rock, their tanned arms covered in designs mirroring white tattoos that reminded Courfeyrac of ocean waves.  Their hair was long and tangled, golden with what looked like red seaweed intertwined, cascading over their naked chest. But none of that is what Courfeyrac cared about.  What she cared about, in fact what she couldn’t take her eyes off of for one second, was the red and golden _tail_ that lay where their legs should be.

“Holy fucking shit, fuck, fuck, what the,” Courfeyrac’s voice was quickly increasing in volume, but she couldn’t help it.  There was a fucking mermaid sitting mere yards away from her, looking at her like she was going crazy.  Which she probably, no, _definitely_ was.

“Calm down, you look as though you’re about to have a panic attack,” the mermaid said, eyebrows furrowing in concern.  “What’s wrong?”

Courfeyrac laughed, a manic sound that made the mermaid flinch.  She didn’t blame them.  “What’s wrong, _what’s wrong?_ Wow, this, this is…” Courfeyrac’s internal laughter died down and she felt tears bubble up.  “What the fuck is happening.  This is why I fucking hate the ocean, what the fuck, mermaids cannot exist.”

“You hate the ocean?”  The mermaid responded, voice laced with horrified offense.

Courfeyrac ignored them and squeezed her eyes shut.  “There’s no such thing as mermaids, you’re dreaming Courfeyrac, you’re dreaming, just wake up, calm down…”

“Enjolras, what are you—oh.”  Courfeyrac vaguely heard a new voice cut into her monologue, but it was fuzzy and muffled against her panic.  She could hear voices, especially the distinct one of the _mermaid’s,_ but she ignored it and decided to just keep talking to herself until she woke up.  She didn’t really know what would happen if she had a panic attack inside of a dream, but she didn’t want to find out.

However as the moments continued, her breathing only got more labored. The only thing she could picture was that tail, that horrifying, shocking, albeit beautiful, tail. If mermaids existed, then what else?  Images of monsters snuck into Courfeyrac’s head and she could feel tears begin to trail down her cheeks rapidly, but that didn’t help, because it was just more fucking water—

“Listen, listen to me, listen to my voice, please,” she suddenly heard, and it sounded like someone was speaking to her from several feet away. Their voice was sweet and comforting and grounding and she wondered why they sounded so far away. “You’re hyperventilating. Can you hear me?”

“Yes,” Courfeyrac managed to spit out, still keeping her eyes firmly closed and her hands tangled into her hair firmly as if afraid to let go. She couldn’t find any other words, her throat filled with panic and not much else.

“Good, that’s good.  Just breathe, okay?  Breathe with me. Breathe in,”  Courfeyrac managed a small shaky breath only to release it half a second later, “breathe out.  Breathe in… breathe out.”

This continued for what felt like hours, and after a while Courfeyrac managed to get the hang of it.  She slowly began to register the pain that came with pulling her hair that hard and how cold she had gotten.  She still refused to open her eyes though, not wanting to focus on anything except the voice.

“You’re doing wonderful.  Really, really wonderful.  How do you feel?” The voice questioned. It sounded like honey and warmth, and she had no idea why a voice like that would be all the way out here by the cold, terrifying ocean.

“Like shit.”  Courfeyrac confessed, though she let a small chuckle bubble through her lips. She was graced with a laugh in response, deep and full, and it calmed Courfeyrac down even more, making her smile.  “I’m exhausted. I feel like I’ve run thirteen miles.”

Courfeyrac hadn’t been lying—she was exhausted, and her closed eyes only made it all the worse.  She yawned as her mind drifted, not really able to focus on anything but the sweet idea of sleep. It didn’t help that she had driven all night the night before to get to the beach house in the first place.

“That is what panic attacks will do to you,” the voice reasoned. There was a nice silence before the voice spoke up again.  “What did one ocean say to the other?”

Courfeyrac kept her eyes closed, wondering if she had heard wrong. “What?”

“Nothing, they just waved.”  The voice piped up again, and Courfeyrac let out a breathless laugh before she truly drifted off to sleep.

 

 ~*~

 

Courfeyrac wasn’t asleep long.  About twenty minutes later she heard a door slam, most likely by one of her friends seeing as they looked like the only house actively awake on this night, and was shocked out of her dream state.

She looked around, and was both relieved and a bit disappointed to find she was alone.

 

 ~*~ 

 

That should have been it.  Courfeyrac should have pushed whatever she might have seen out of her head and moved on with her life.  People didn’t go searching for mermaids.  Especially people who were terrified of the sea.

Or at least this is what Joly tells her in detail in the morning when she tries to explain what happened.

“Courfeyrac, you cannot be serious.  It was dark, you’d been drinking, you were already exhausted, not to mention trying to overcome serious anxiety.  You probably had a panic attack and hallucinated the whole thing,” Joly lists everything in a reasonable voice, and Courfeyrac knows she should listen. Joly has a point, in fact, Joly has _several_ points, but that doesn’t settle Courfeyrac’s mind.

“It just seemed so real,” Courfeyrac says, mostly to herself.

“I know, dear.  But we’ve been coming down her for about six years now- don’t you think we would have seen mermaids?  Especially ones who seem rather horrible at hiding themselves?”  Joly asked her, patting her head as Bossuet handed Courfeyrac a cup of hot chocolate.

She had only decided to tell Joly and Bossuet, partly because they were the only two up at 5 o’clock (the unfortunate hour Courfeyrac had found herself waking up at), and partly because if anyone knew about anything unusual about the beach, it would be them two.

Courfeyrac didn’t argue her point any further, instead thanking them for the hot chocolate and grabbing the newspaper, though her mind was everywhere but current events.  Jehan was the next one to come down, and after that, conversation flowed easily, and any talk of mermaids was lost.

 

~*~

 

It didn’t last long.  The next day, Courfeyrac waited until the afternoon to go out to the beach. This was the busiest time of day for the beach, and she was sure that if she just walked around for long enough, she would hear the voice.  Joly was right, the mermaid thing was ridiculous, but if she _had_ had a panic attack and hallucinated the whole thing, that doesn’t mean somebody wasn’t there calming her down.

She wandered through crowds of people slowly, acting as though she were taking her time when really she was just subtly (read: not-so-subtly) eavesdropping on people’s conversations, hoping to hear anything familiar. Really Courfeyrac was hoping that somebody would just recognize her so she wouldn’t have to do this, but she’d already waited a whole day with no changes, so it was time to take it into her own hands.

Courfeyrac spent four hours wandering around the beach with no luck. The sun had set half an hour ago, and the beach was just about empty.  Her feet were tired, and she may have even gotten sunburn, something that hadn’t happened to her since she was twelve.  Joly was going to have a field day when she got back to the house.

After walking aimlessly, she found herself back at the same group of rocks that the… _incident_ had taken place at only two days earlier.  She sighed, taking off her flip flops and digging her feet into the sand before sitting down on the rock.

It was silent for several seconds, and then she heard something familiar. 

“You’re back.”  It was the voice, that beautiful stunning voice that made Courfeyrac feel as though she’d heard it her entire life.  A smile crept onto her face unbidden.  “I didn’t think you would come back.”

Courfeyrac turned around, eyes searching for the person in question. Her eyes landed on a girl sitting on a rock a couple of yards away, about her own age, that had dark skin that was covered in all-too-familiar white tattoos.  Courfeyrac felt her breath stop as her eyes dropped down, past her dark wavy hair, past the smooth skin, and dropped down to…

_Of fucking course._

Within seconds, Courfeyrac’s breathing had lost its steady rhythm, her eyes still locked on the blue green iridescent _tail_ of the girl that was sitting before her.  After what felt like six hours of staring at it, she managed to squeeze her eyes shut, hands flying to her face as she tried to calm herself down.

“It’s okay, Courfeyrac, you’re fine, you’re fine,” she muttered over and over again, hoping to restore some semblance of assurance into her stupid brain, which had her hallucinating again.  “It’s okay, it’s okay—“

As this went on, Courfeyrac realized she wasn’t the only one talking. That voice was talking with her, repeating the things Courfeyrac said while adding new stuff as well. “You’re safe, you’re safe, breathe in…breathe out…”

Courfeyrac stopped talking, her breathing a bit less ragged and she listened to the voice, which sounded much closer than it had been before.

“Just breathe.”

Courfeyrac opened her eyes slowly, strictly avoiding looking anywhere but the mermaid’s face.  The mermaid in question looked calm, but there was a deep sense of concern on her face. As Courfeyrac continued to stare silently, it turned into clear discomfort.  She glanced around, before looking back at Courfeyrac, rather helplessly.

“Why had the two algae never had sex?” She asked suddenly.  When Courfeyrac didn’t respond, she continued with “they had a planktonic relationship.” 

Ocean puns.  Courfeyrac was sitting in front of an astonishingly beautiful mermaid, who was also a fucking dork. This was worse than she could ever expected.

Courfeyrac stared at the mermaid with suspicious eyes, not able to do anything else. “You’re a—“ she started before being interrupted.

“I’m so sorry, I should have told you not to turn around, or given you some warning.”  The mermaid’s face was immeasurably guilty, her pale blue eyes filled with conern, and although Courfeyrac still didn’t have a clue what was going on, the last thing she wanted was to make anyone feel like Courfeyrac’s panic was her fault.

“No, no, it’s not your fault.”  The mermaid stopped talking and looked up at her, clearly unsure. Courfeyrac took a deep breath, speaking more firmly.  “Seriously. I just get this way about the ocean.  You didn’t do anything wrong.  In fact, you’ve done more than enough, seeing as you’ve calmed me down from two panic attacks in one week.”

She offered up a smile and the mermaid half returned it, her pale lips twisting up in the corner.  “My name is Combeferre.”

“You’re French,” was all Courfeyrac could think of to say.  “I mean, of course you’re French, you speak French perfectly, I just… wasn’t expecting you to have a French name.”

Combeferre tilted her to the side slightly, a smirk playing on her lips. “Did you think my name would be something closer to Ariel or Oceania?”  Her voice was teasing, and Courfeyrac wondered if it was possible to get drunk on a voice.

“No!” She responded, a bit defensively. “I mean.  Maybe, actually, I’m really not sure what I was expecting.”

Combeferre laughed and combed a hand—which were not webbed, Courfeyrac noted—through a couple of curls that had fallen in front of her face.  “You still haven’t told me your name.”

“What? Oh, I’m Courfeyrac!” She replied quickly, slightly embarrassed for not remembering.  “Sorry.”

“Courfeyrac.” Combeferre repeated with a gentle smile, giving a slight nod.  “You’re French.”

Courfeyrac frowned, a bit confused.  “Well, yes, I—“ she stopped when Combeferre began to laugh.  “You’re teasing me.”

“I’m sorry,” Combeferre said, and she sounded genuine.  “It’s just… you’re very pretty when you’re flustered.”

Courfeyrac’s mouth opened in surprise.  A mermaid was flirting with her.  This is not how she pictured her day going.

Before she could respond with some witty comeback (which would probably have turned out to be her just stumbling over words before eventually settling for something like “you’re pretty when you’re… flustering me?”), Combeferre spoke up again, a small frown on her face.

“I’m sorry if that was out of line.  I didn’t mean to put you on the spot or anything, I just thought you should know that you’re pretty.  But I’m sure you don’t need me to tell you that.  I mean—“

“You’re pretty when you’re flustered too.” Courfeyrac finally found her voice again, and she spoke with a slight twist of the lips and a sparkle in her eyes. Combeferre closed her mouth, and Courfeyrac swore she saw her skin darken the tiniest bit on her cheeks.

“I’m still sorry about freaking you out,” Combeferre said, though she looked less worried and more embarrassed.

Courfeyrac shrugged, feeling strangely at ease.  She leaned back on her hands.  “Two panic attacks during our first two encounters? Don’t worry about it. Could be a fun story to tell the kids.”  Combeferre blushed again, and it spurred Courfeyrac on.

She grinned and leaned forward.  “Hey Combeferre, why did the algae and the fungus get married?” Combeferre grinned and shrugged gracefully, and Courfeyrac finished the joke happily.  “They took a lichen to each other.”

Combeferre laughed for a second before frowning.  “I don’t know, I heard their marriage was on the rocks.”

Courfeyrac was silent for a moment before she burst out laughing, Combeferre chuckling as well. 

“Courfeyrac!” They suddenly heard, both jumping. Courfeyrac looked down the beach at where the beach house lights were still on.  “Are you out there?”

“Shit, those are my friends,” Courfeyrac said, getting to her feet. Combeferre straightened up, frowning slightly.

“Of course.”  She said. She turned as if to leave before hesitating.  “Will you come back tomorrow?”

Courfeyrac bit her lip, thinking.  After a moment she smirked and said, “we’ll _sea._ ”

The resounding laugh was well worth it.  So maybe the sea wasn’t _all_ bad.

**Author's Note:**

> I based Courfeyrac off of myself in this, because I do have thalassophobia, which means some of this was hard to write without freaking out a little bit because I totally understand her panic.  
> I hope you enjoyed it!! Happy holidays!


End file.
